


Paris

by MarineHaddock



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 01:33:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11280975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarineHaddock/pseuds/MarineHaddock
Summary: Old short story for class.





	Paris

Every Thursday, Aspen would come. In his hastily tied shoes with the laces almost undone and his old worn beige hat upon his head. He came every Thursday at eleven o'clock on the dot without fail, on a bike which he struggled to ride in a straight line. Everyone could tell when he'd arrived from the girls hanging out the window, chattering about how if they were only younger, they'd be his wife. Maya would tell them off as she ran downstairs to meet her brother and receive her lunch from him, which she always made a point of forgetting, just to watch everyone's reactions when her darling baby brother turned up. She'd complain about how they acted about him but in reality she loved the attention she gained from it.

The younger girls who were there would beg her to introduce them, being of a similar age to the boy. Every day Maya would give them the same response.  
"What would you want to marry a boy like him for? He has no money and no sense of romance. Your children would all be stuck with those horrid ginger curls and freckles, as well as his tiny nose."  
Maya used nearly the same reasons for why she was glad her and Aspen had so little in common.  
"This time next year, I'll be in Paris with all the money I saved. They know what romance is there and they'll adore a girl with hair as blonde as mine, everyone does."  
She'd claim she'd be in Paris next year every year and the years would end with her not going anywhere. They didn't get paid well enough to make it to Paris in a year and Maya had to use her money to keep her brother alive, so by the end she didn't have any money left over anyway.

On rainy days, Aspen would come into the factory, soaking wet and red faced from the cold. The women would flock to him, telling him how he shouldn't have been out in such terrible weather on an old bike which he could hardly ride. They'd be drying his face with their filthy sleeves and rushing to find a tea towel to dry his unruly hair with while another tried to find him dry clothes to wear while his own dried. Aspen was far too quiet to stop them and before he knew it he'd be in some old work uniform with a unwashed tea towel over his head and a cup of warm water in his hands. He'd sit and quietly sip it, trying his best not to disturb anyone any further. Yet the younger women giggled at him and he'd blush like he'd never seen a girl before. Some girls would bat their pretty eyelids and lightly tug on those ginger curls, begging him to talk to them, then bursting into fits of giggles from every noise that escaped his lips. Aspen would laugh along with them, unsure of what they found to be so hilarious.

The giggling next to him always gave Hughie a headache. The only continually free seat was beside him and he'd be trapped, listening to the girls high pitched giggles and Aspen constant stumbling. On top of the headache it served to cause, it distracted him from his work, causing him to make mistakes. On more than one occasion he shouted at them for it and they'd laugh, telling him how he always served to ruin their fun. They'd sit around him, prattling on about he was just jealous because all the girls were hanging off Aspen from his cute face alone. Eventually Maya would come over to shoo them away and send them back to their work and let Hughie continue to work quietly. However, ten minutes into the silence, Aspen made a habit of breaking it and would quietly ask questions about what he was doing, to which he'd receive one word answers till he stopped.

Then in the winter, when Aspen was forced to spend more time inside with them, since Maya didn't have the heart to simply remember her lunch and he didn't have the brains to get himself a job, he started asking Hughie more questions. He'd start to ask about his life away from work but Hughie still answered as simply as possibly. Eventually, Aspen was forced to give up on asking questions and instead just started to tell Hughie things. On the fifth week of these one-sided conversations, Aspen pointed to Ronnette and told him of how when he got a job as a doctor or a judge or anything that would make him rich, he'd marry a pretty girl like her. A girl with chubby, red cheeks, sparkling eyes and long wavy hair. That day he declared that Ronnette would be his wife and he'd declare his love to her when he received his first pay check. A couple of weeks later he said he'd be declaring his love to Krista. Then it was Amanda and then Skye, followed shortly by Merletta. Soon he'd claimed he'd be declaring his love for near every girl in the factory who was of his age. Hughie once asked Maya about her brother's real intentions for his future.  
"Hugh, I hate to say it but those really are his plans. Get a job as anything that makes him rich and marry the first pretty girl he sees. I've told him time and time again, Hugh, that it isn't going to be that easy and if he doesn't get a job soon his looks will be gone before he can even buy a ring."

Then the day came when Aspen burst into the factory, on a Monday with no lunch in sight, his shoes undone, his cap near off his head, his bike abandoned at the entrance and his knees scraped from when he fell off it in excitement. In his hands he clutched hardly a penny more than everyone in the factory worked a month for. He shouted that it was his first pay check and the women praised him. He bowed and blew kisses to them before grabbing Maya's hand to pull her up with him.  
"This time next year, I'm taking my sister and Hughie to Paris!"


End file.
